The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1887-04-13
The Pordioseros.
Chicago Times.1

Chicago Times.
The Times has received from ex-sol-
diers, pensioners, wouid-be pensioners,
claim agents, attorneys, politicians, eau
Gus manipulators, office-holders, Office
seekers, plain citizens, and other sorts
of inhabitants many urgent epistles in
quiriug what the word pordiosero means.
Seeing that the country contains so
many of them, and that their number
is increasing with great rapidity, it
seems little strange that so many in
telligent citizens should make such an
inquiry.
In a classification of beggars, the
pordiosero class is composed of those
that go about begging aims for Gods
sake. So says the dictionary, and such
is the import of the word as appears by
its etymology.
But the term imports something more
than a beggar of aims for Gods sake.
The dictionary also says that it is en-
ployed in fgurative sense to designate
person destitute of manliness, who
solicits anything in low, mean, scent
following manner.
The pordiosero is fellow that entered
q
proffered money bribe (called a bounty,
and upon quitting it without scratch,
commenced to follow the scent of a
hoped-for pension.
The pordiosero is a pension beggar
that never smelled gunpowder, but be
came "battle-scarred veteran" never
theless in the exhaustive and soldierly
occupation of cooling his coffee at a safe
distance from the front.
The pordiosero is patriotic person
that enlisted two or three months before
the end of the war, got government
bounty of $400 and a local bounty of
$500 (more or Iess), and never was in
range of an enemy's gun, but wants a
pension because he saved the country.
The pordiosero is an able bodied men
dicant that has received more than
ample pay for all the military service
he ever rendered, but, having an aver
sion to honest labor, lays down and yells
for government to come and give him
teat to suck to keep him out of the
poor house.
The pordiosero is person that, before
he entered the army, was man, and
self-supporting citizen that would have
spurned the thought of asking contri-
button from the earnings of Others as
infinitely degrading to his manhood, /,
but that, having lost his manhood
(without damage to his physical robust
ness) in the service of his country, is
not now ashamed to beg "an obolo for
Gods sake" upon the degrading pre-
tense that he is pauper incapable of
earning an honest living.
Tha - fn
the socialist fellow who thinks of
government as an establishment for the
support of people that dislike the task
of supporting themselves. AS govern
ment produces nothing, and has nothing
of its own, and can only give to one
that which the pordiosero begs and the
socialist demands is in reality the same,
a seizure and redistribution of private
property.
The pordiosero is mendicant that
thinks of government as mother, and
of himself as one of her helpless off
springs that has not yet been weaned
and has a right to be nourished upon
the maternal bosom. eff part of his
nourishment come from the earnings
of the rebel soldier" says poor por-
diosero of the name of Cunningham, at
kearney, Nebraska, sit is unfortunate
for him; but ne is the cause of it in
proportion to the tax he pays! Let
him, next time, soldier under the nour-
ishment and admonition of his mother,
the government"
The pordiosero is, pretentiously, at
once great strong armed hero that has
saved the country from the southern
rebels, and great big helpless baby and
dependent BOBBY that is incapable of
saving himself from the public aims
house; at once a giant in arms capable
of pulling down The Times building
and assassinating tie personnel of the
establishment, and pitiful creature
without the character or attributes of 8
man, that is in danger of perishing
miserably in its helplessness unless gov
ernment will eharitably provide it with
nursing bottle.
The pordiosero is a stalwart beggal
for a teat to suck on the pretense either
that he is too feeble and helpless to carr
an honest living, or that military service
entities the citizen who renders it, il
addition to his pay, bounty money, etc.
to be forever afterward supported at the
public cost.